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TRANSGENDER EXPRESS

Jungle DJ 1.8.7 morphs from Joe to Jordana

By GREG MILNER for SPIN Magazine
Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
New York
November 11, 1998

Going through personal changes between records is customary for musicians, but drum'n'bass DJ 1.8.7 really put on a new face. In August, the formerly dreadlocked and baggypantsed Joe LeSesne showed up at the New York offices of the Liquid Sky label walking, talking, and looking like a woman. In the transgendered musical tradition of punk-racker Wayne/Jayne County, synth player Wendy Carlos, and Israeli diva Dana International, LeSesne had switched sexes. But for all LeSesne's apprehensions, her Joe-to-Jordana transformation was met with only the mildest surprise. "Liquid Sky is all freaks," quips label manager Eric Holt.

LeSesne says that after 26 years of severe depression and confusion, she finally decided to start "gender transitioning," which involves hormone therapy and living as a woman for at least a year before legally applying for full sex-reassignment surgery. "For many years, I was just immersing myself in the music and the scene as a means of escape," LeSesne says. In the process, LeSesne became one of the few internationally respected American jungle DJ/producers, known for the dark, pummeling assaults of such solo records as 1997's When Worlds Collide. "The distorted drums, the aggression," she says, "it was like a microscope into my state of mind at the time." Her impressive new album, QualityRolls, is far less dissonant, slapping fusion bass lines and hip-hop party-rocking together in a smoothly ethereal mix.

After a few dance fans sniped that LeSesne's gender flip smelled like a bid for attention, dance bible Mixmag hit back with a sympathetic cover story titled, "This Is Not a Publicity Stunt." But LeSesne's main battle, she says, has been re-adapting to the drum'n'bass boys' club. After headlining raves for years, LeSesne suddenly found herself scheduled, like even the most well-known lady DJs, in the early-evening ghetto. "Many guys have said that some female DJs get more attention because they're women," she says. "I'd counter that many are also discounted because they aren't the right kind of women." Recently, as a goodwill gesture, LeSesne made her extensive archive of breakbeats available free via her Web site (www.187.nu). Electronic music —like gender — is always up for a remix.

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